International Eosinophil Society, Inc.

Wytske J. Fokkens, MD, PhD

Wytske J. Fokkens is Professor at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at the Amsterdam University Medical Centres, Amsterdam, The Netherlands and honorary professor in Patras, Greece. Her main field of interest is sinus surgery and mucosal pathology of the upper and lower airways. She is the chairperson of the European Position Paper on Rhinosinusitis and Nasal Polyps (EPOS). Dr. Fokkens is a founder member of EUFOREA, member of EC of ERS, ARIA and workpackage and center leader of GA2LEN, the EU network of excellence. She is the author of more than 500 papers on allergy and rhinology that have been published in peer-reviewed journals. She has written a textbook on Rhinology: Rhinology and Skull Base Surgery, From the Lab to the Operating Room – An Evidence Based Approach, (Thieme ). Since 15 years she organizes an advanced sinus surgery course. She serves as Editor in chief of Rhinology and Rhinology online and Associate Editor of Allergy and Clinical Respiratory Journal. She received the EAACI Paul Ehrlich award for improving experimental research.  She is honorary member of EAACI, the Spanish and Greek Societies of ORL, and the Roumanian Rhinologic Society. She is married and has three children.

Delbert Dorscheid, MD, PhD

Professor Del Dorscheid is Associate Professor of Medicine at the Centre for Heart Lung Innovation at St. Paul’s Hospital, one of the hospitals of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. He directs the Severe Asthma Clinic, is an attending physician in the intensive care unit, and also leads a research group.

Professor Dorscheid’s current research focuses on how the airway epithelium contributes to the development of inflammatory airway disease such as asthma. More specifically, he is investigating the role of inappropriate epithelium injury-repair cycles in asthma pathogenesis, including studies on glucocorticoid-induced cell apoptosis in the airway epithelium, the involvement of glycoproteins in epithelial repair, and the mechanisms of immune barriers in the airway.

He has published widely on airway remodeling and optimal referral and management of severe asthma in Canada

Angela Haczku, MD, PhD

Dr. Haczku is a Professor of Medicine and Director of the UC Davis Lung Center. She is a pulmonary immunologist with interests in epithelial and immune cell interactions. She published over 100 peer-reviewed papers, has been federally funded for the past 20 years, and received numerous awards, such as the Parker B Francis Pulmonary Fellowship and the American Lung Association (ALA) Career Investigator Award. At UC Davis, she holds the Chester Robbins Endowment for Pulmonary Research. Dr. Haczku is a Fellow of the American Academy of Asthma, Allergy and Immunology (AAAAI), and is an inducted member of the Collegium Internationale Allergologicum. She chaired the ATS Allergy, Inflammation and Immunology Program Committee and is the current elected chair of the AAAAI Mechanisms of Allergy and Immunology Interest Section. She has been associate editor of Respiratory Research; Allergy; and The International Archives of Allergy and Immunology; and served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, and the American Journal of Physiology. She mentored numerous students, postdoctoral fellows, and clinical trainees, many of whom have gone on to establish their own successful research programs.

Roopa Hebbandi Nanjundappa, MSc, PhD

Roopa Hebbandi Nanjundappa, MSc, PhD, is an AAI postdoctoral fellow at Dalhousie University. She earned her PhD in Immunology from the University of Calgary, where her research focused on understanding how a gut microbial molecular mimic of pancreatic beta-cell auto-antigen can protect the host from inflammatory bowel disease. Currently, she is investigating the roles of mast cells and eosinophils in Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) infection under the mentorship of Dr. Jean Marshall.